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You can bank on it (updated- maybe you can’t)

The Obama administration will soon announce regulations that allow banks to do business with legal marijuana sellers, Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday.

“You don’t want just huge amounts of cash in these places. They want to be able to use the banking system,” Holder said during an appearance at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “There’s a public safety component to this. Huge amounts of cash—substantial amounts of cash just kind of lying around with no place for it to be appropriately deposited is something that would worry me, just from a law enforcement perspective.”

This is extremely important, not only for the safety of cannabis businesses and the convenience of cannabis consumers, but it also means that the banking industry will now benefit from legalization. And that’s good for the future of legalization.

Update: The Politico article has been updated:

While Holder spoke twice of new “regulations” that were being prepared, a Justice Department spokesman said later that the attorney general was referring to legal “guidance” for prosecutors and federal law enforcement. Such a legal memo wouldn’t be enforceable in court and would amount to less than the kind of clear safe harbor many banks say they would want before accepting money from pot businesses.

I agree with the thud but this blow came from within the building,,some big wheel gave the nod on it or it wouldn’t happen,,now the banks are going to start drawing back from the black market,,I suppose he/they decided rather than expose all the corporate control by trying to ignore and bully over the marijuana issue became to expensive,,,when keeping prohibition starts costing them too much they will get out of it,,if it was just the US they might try to hold out a little longer,,but it is world wide and there isn’t any getting the cork in the bottle.

“Holder said the new regulations were likely to emerge ‘very soon’ and were not intended to amount to a blessing of marijuana by the federal government. ‘It is an attempt to deal with a reality that exists in these states,’ he said.”

The drug war won’t end with the drug war. What the drug war has accomplished is to yank the sheets off of systemic government corruption. The activist momentum created by prohibition has nowhere to go after prohibition but to address the problems created by prohibition and the prohibitches.

For what it’s worth, I really feel like this is the biggest T#*D next to two states legalizing. The expediting process just hit 3rd gear in my opinion.

What is a bigger motivator than $$$? I just watched here in Hawai’i one of our legislators wants to introduce a bill to export our Cannabis and even macnut edibles (internationally). The funny thing bout this interview was that she was so giddy and absolutely PRO-cannabis! Majority Floor Leader Rida Cabanilla on KGMB. The best part, was she claimed we in Hawai’i have THE BEST.

Thudalicious (like when a falling brick hits a prohib)
Thudded (what happened to the prohib hit by the falling brick)
Garry Trudeau has our official songsmith,
– Jimmy Thudpucker
ThudFest® (the non-official name for the post-legalization party)
Thud-O-Rama® (the whack-a-mole game w/ Calvinas instead of moles)
Thudtastic (how I feel when a brick falls on a prohib)

Its a honor to be one of the first posts here on this topic. This is a blog Ive followed for a long time … It looks like the will of the people is finally being adhered to.
Legalization is happening ,and there’s not a whole lot the opposition can do.. It will bring tremendous joy to see the new industries come to fruition , and to see the Defeated Drug Warriors twist, and sizzle with anger,and frustration. I will enjoy seeing Kevin Sabets epic fails via twitter, and personal appearances all while sustainable New American Jobs are being created…Brick by Brick

It will take decades to dismantle and defuse all the crap prohibition has infected,,the first step is still to remove reefer mad people from any position of authority,,when they figure out we are after them they will try to act like they support freedom but they will always vote for control or use their authority to screw up the process.

The process will be alot quicker if they know/think/fear that There Will Be a New Nuremberg, a drugwar-crimes Tribunal seeking complete reparations for every loss suffered due to Prohibition. I am all for peaceful cooperation, forgiveness and mutual aid but many Prohibitches only respond to threat of personal loss or corporal punishment, Im all for a return to public floggings of any who committ coercive evil against their brother over a plant!

They won’t make the same percentages on the legal market,,when they took the legal money they know the illegal money will be dwindling and eventually gone from the marijuana market,,you notice how they shrunk the marijuana market with Rand when we knew better,,,it wouldn’t surprise me if we have cut the market the FBI and ONDCP reported to Congress in July 2011 of $40 billion(defined as a conservative estimate)has already been cut in half just by the American growers that have started up since then,,maybe more.
When they reported that much money was being made off marijuana it wasn’t just investors that got interested,,it would be informative to see the growth pattern of the grow supply industry.

In a sense we did overgrow prohibition,,we started cutting the profits on the marijuana market with homegrown and it isn’t happening just in America,,so the marijuana market,while still illegal is at least keeping a lot of the local money in the local economy.

Ya, I keep telling people we are taking weed money from one criminal and giving it to another bigger criminal through legalization(Banks and the state/Federal government). Which is worse? Cartels /gangs or government? EHH, lesser of two evils?

Damn. Here, I thought it was merely a matter of size. Since HSBC, Wachovia, etc. have been doing business all along, laundering cartel money, I was convinced it wasn’t a matter of principal, so much as scale. I mean….way back in 2008 it was speculated that during the early phases of the crash, the only liquid funds anywhere were coming from the drug trade. Multiple sources declared it was drug money that kept the world economy afloat. http://www.theguardian.com/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
Just when you think you understand the principals involved.

there is no joy on the prohibitches’ bench, at least not ’til payday. meanwhile on pete’s couch the posse tests the theory that it’s impossible to die from cannabis poisoning. new, unheard of methods of ingesting the herb are in use. the merry dopesters are practicing the dance they will use on the grave of prohibition. a dance to dismantle the enabling structures that made prohibition so hard to defeat. drink up prohibitches your day is coming to a end.

Marijuana Businesses Should Have Access To Banks
The rules are not expected to give banks a green light to accept deposits and provide other services, but would tell prosecutors not to prioritize cases involving legal marijuana businesses that use banks.

Well ah yup, ya they should… But why would a bank risk getting busted on such a non regulation? Lower priority, so if they solve all of their crimes then they can bust banksters for money laundering drug money? I have little respect for banksters but why “should they risk anything? Another stall when we know what he needs to do is remove it as a scheduled narcotic. As a skeptical old stoner and if i didn’t see it many times in the past. I’d say they were stalling until Big Pharma is set up for distribution. But there is always hope the cops and persecutors won’t do what we pay them to do because some p[olitician doesn’t think his gut is OK with doing the just and proper thing.

Banks Say No To Marijuana Money, Legal or Not
Though 20 states and the District of Columbia allow either medical or recreational marijuana use — with more likely to follow suit — the drug remains illegal under federal law. The Controlled Substances Act, enacted in 1970 classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, the most dangerous category, which also includes heroin, LSD and ecstasy. As a result, banks, including state-chartered ones, are reluctant to provide traditional services to marijuana businesses. They fear that federal regulators and law enforcement authorities might punish them, with measures like large fines, for violating prohibitions on money-laundering, among other federal laws and regulations.

Richard Riese, senior vice president for regulatory compliance at the American Bankers Association, said banks wanted clear and comprehensive guidelines on how to do business with the legal marijuana industry. Mr. Riese said, for instance, that banks would want to know that they were not “aiding and abetting” a criminal enterprise if they provided services to marijuana businesses. “Banks will need a lot of detail from regulators to get the satisfaction and comfort they are looking for,”

A lot of detail in a non regulation, doesn’t change policy or gaurantee they won’t get fined anymore than the dispensaries still being busted by drug worrier DA;s and renegade cops. What is the message you’re sending to the kids now Barry? Confusion?

Is that deal covering the transporting and security for dispensaries? Are they also to be less of a priority? All jumping at the chance to lose their license or the money itself? He seems to be asking people to break the law so he doesn’t have to change a bad law on the books? What would the message to the WoD Junkie Walmartians?

On top of asking them to break the law. How will they continue to break the law getting Cartel bail outs if they legalize it? Does anyone ever feel we would be a lot safer without banks and cops? So once again we find ourselves appeasing the prohibitches. Honest perhaps, concern for the safety of those with a burden of having large amounts of cash to stash. Or skeptically as more reasons to stall changing the CSA. And all of this going on while I’m toking on a joint without the need of any of them.

Too bad there’s not an industry in: ‘Backtracking like a Pussy for Fun & Profit!’

I’m hoping Jay Carney refuses to be thrown under the bus here – (I’m not sure that he would – he’s literally “just the messenger”.
Although, “…Prior to his appointment as Press Secretary he was ‘director of communications’ for Vice President Joe Biden.”
And as we all (should) know – Joe Biden is a big promoter of “Drug Courts”… this was listed on his Delaware senatorial website – finding/reading this gave me “a bad feeling about this” – (*like a disturbance in ‘The Force’*) – The day he was announced as Obama’s VP pick!
IDK, I wonder if someone has his nuts in a vise somehow or what?

I still think this might be a bit of ‘payback’ – for Biden – For Joe’s announcing he was okay with marriage equality, a bit before Obama was personally ready to “evolve” on it… Almost like he decided to say, “Hey Joe, How do ya like me now?”

The polls on ‘gay marriage’ seriously shifted among blacks shortly after that, even though it “Wasn’t a change of WH Policy” – not yet…

I’m truly hoping this will have the same effect, pushing the poll numbers even further beyond the 55% or 58% of Americans favoring legalization, of the 3rd joke rehab garbage – that will ‘die on the vine’ about 3 seconds after people see the price/bill for the jail or mandatory treatment – ounce again posing as an “End of the Drug War”.
And, trying to make people pay for it themselves (which is what all the old, bitter, greedy bastards will immediately suggest) – That won’t ever fly given the already huge degree of income disparity in the US and for that matter – the rest of the world.

I’m thinking this was a brilliant move publicly “not supporting legalization”, but knowing he can help add to the momentum of changing views – aka helping to give at least a little shove – toward getting us “over the tipping point.”

If you’ve heard any of the heads exploding about this being “Obama playing the race card”.
Like: Ann Coulter’s did on Peirs Morgan the other night – I missed some of it but I heard the hissy-fit and what I’m pretty sure was ‘head-splosion’ from the TV while fixing some food in the kitchen.

Anywho, I’ve long said the last thing we want him to do is actively support legalization = that’s a SURE way to get half the country against it, he was just stating his personal opinion = which the ONDCP Act doesn’t prevent him from doing.
He doesn’t have to “change White House Policy” or the official “drug control strategy”, He knows that as the polls go so will the politicians.
Even if a few are now ‘publicly’ “backtracking” = I think that’s a really just CYA move on their part.

I think this is really a fairly slick, “please don’t throw our drug policy in the briar patch”, move and I’m watching the “First Look” – news and they’re still taking about Gov. Perry’s pseudo-decriminalization “he doesn’t support full legalization, yada-yada-yada…”,

But, (IMO) all this backtracking = that’s NOT what the general Public is going to remember. Think about how people reacted to the “Memos”, as Ken Cuccinelli said the other day on Crossfire (in reference to Gov. Chris Christie’s troubles) “Perception is Reality”… people will forget the backtracking – and we’re already winning the fight based on the current polls.

Then NEXT set of polls on this will probably be even stronger on our side = Everyone is/was just “too chicken to go first”, in following/shifting toward the current existing Public Opinion.

He cannot write a legal law for a schedule 1 substance for marketing or banking,,that is why we get memos,,they will not remove cannabis from schedule 1 because they know it all unwinds when they do,,,something about their own “Catch 22” biting them in their ass would be appropriate

And in the meantime they are sitting and waiting for the big robbery with dead unarmed victims everywhere from some sick mother fucker to use as justification that legal marijuana causes violence or maybe two or three but it is like this big bubble to sit and watch it happen
The distributors in CO should close their doors and put signs in the windows,,back to the green market where I can at least protect my life

Kofi Annan: “It has been a disaster and has inflicted enormous harm,”
“Drug use is not down. It’s time for a different approach. Drugs have destroyed many people, and the wrong government and policies have destroyed many people.”

Yep, I’m 98% certain that for General Annan – “More Arrests and Mandatory Drug Rehab or Jail” (Like Christie & Perry are trying to push as a so-called “End Of The Drug War”), is NOT AT ALL what he had in mind there when he called for “a different approach.”

I was able to catch a little bit of that live, but the stream ended before I could see the whole thing. The little I saw was very encouraging. I even heard one of the commenters say “What a stage” when he got to his seat. What a stage indeed.

That one needs to be filed in the “strange bedfellows” category. They don’t get much stranger than Rick Perry!

This is going to give conniption fits to the prohibitionist parasites and their sycophants. On our side of the table it will likely cause a severe case of cognitive dissonance because things like this just aren’t supposed to happen. I mean, wow, didn’t Gov. Perry lobby to criminalize blowjobs? How the heck does someone come up with the notion of criminalizing oral sex?

He had a ‘spokeswoman’ from his office – who was backtracking for him (I think) before he even got back from Switzerland – in fact he could still be over there IDK.
But the message was he’s all about “States’ Rights” on the issue But that his ‘move toward decriminalization’ would be = More drug courts & more rehab, a bit less jail.

Actually are best chance to legalize it here *quick* would be if the ‘Big Government’ tried to tell us we’re forbidden to do so! *sigh*

“We are in the midst of creating a corporate, for-profit marijuana industry that has to rely on addiction for profit, and that’s a much bigger issue than whether these stores take American Express,” said Kevin Sabet, co-founder of the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

Kevin, if you had a shred of business sense you would put together a business plan outlining the urgent need to open marijuana addiction clinics all over the country. After all, there is soon to be hordes of marijuana addicts needing your expertise. Surely there will be investors just lining up to get in on the action. Why don’t you see the gold in “relying on addiction for profit”? What say ye, DOCTOR Sabet?

Kevin and other addiction “experts” are always suggesting that 1 out of every 10 or 11 marijuana users wind up being addicted. Likely one of his biggest fears is just how far that ratio will drop once the number of “addicts” who would’ve had to choose rehab instead of prison dwindles substantially post legalization. And then we get a closer look at just how addictive it is (.05 out of every 10?, .0025?).

Howard, you should be ashamed of yourself! Also, you’re not accounting for Kev-Kev’s strict adherence to the Humpty Dumpty school of sophistry. Somebody really needs to compile the Prohibitionist Dictionary because it only appears that they’re speaking English.

But just to clear up your misunderstanding, Kev-Kev defines the fiction of merrywanna addiction to include anyone who does enjoy cannabis and who isn’t ashamed of it. He doesn’t care that his beliefs have poor Bill W. spinning in his grave.

The really sad part is that so many outsiders see the prohibitionists as working against their own financial interests by being in favor of continued criminalization. After all, everybody “knows” that everybody else will start smoking grass and suffer the fiction of merrywanna addiction if allowed to legally choose to enjoy cannabis!

I don’t believe that accurate statistics are available. Let’s zip back to 1990 in the Commonwealth of Virginia for a moment. I’m using 1990 because I was there so I know that what I’m going to assert is factually valid. At some point in the late 1980s the Virginia Legislature made going through drugs re-education (AKA “treatment”) mandatory for anyone convicted of violating any of the (some) drugs law.

So anyway one evening a couple of dozen cops served a search warrant and I got busted for growing two genuinely pathetic pot plants. Of course I hired a lawyer and he advised me of the new mandatory re-education law and advised me to “volunteer” before I was ordered to do so. So regardless of the fact that I was genuinely coerced it’s carved in stone that I “volunteered” for “treatment. It wasn’t anything unusual. Heck, in 1993 my best friend got busted. He’d totally given up enjoying cannabis/getting high in 1989 on his own. He still had to go through the motions and get re-educated. It was and probably still is the law.

Politicians have some very odd notions about the definition of the word “voluntary”. Here in Montgomery County Maryland in order to get a high school diploma students have a mandatory obligation to do a certain number of hours of “voluntary” community service. IIRC it’s 80 hours. The fact that mandatory and voluntary participation are mutually exclusive never crossed those politician’s minds. They want students to see the intangible value of doing voluntary community service.

Anyway, to make a long story end, the point is that even if you can get the statistic of who “volunteered” for “treatment” it’s going to be totally skewed and worthless. In Virginia in that day the only mandatory “treatment” is going to be among people who couldn’t afford bail or to a much lesser number the people who told their lawyers to piss off when advised to “volunteer”.

A government source has reported that the stone blocks the CSA is chiseled on have been removed from the Ft Knox suppository and stone masons and voodoo doctors have been summoned so the proper rituals can be performed before the masons add anything to these precious stones that 1/3 of the federal employees depend on to keep their jobs.

He has reported that thinking has been added to the CSA Schedule 1 because it is mind altering and addictive and harms government plans.

About the time you think you know where something is going these basturds crawfish and leave you looking like a grade schooler still working on his alphabet,,the plan must be to cause as many neck lashes as possible,,,it must be a chiropractor’s lobby joined in on keeping prohibition in place,,,the revelation that the bank fix was really another worthless memo really got me down,,,it means there still isn’t any thud from inside the wall and that means it is still drug war on,,,the controllers are not allowing legislation,,only memos.

.
.
Until the philosophy which hold one drug superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned –
Everywhere is war –
Me say war.

That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation,
Because of what they ingest,
Until the prohibitchy parasites learn to mind their own business
Me got to say war

That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race or class or Puritan sensitivities –
Dis a war.

Never let up. This is a war. They started it, they wanted it, they cling to it, they profit from it at our expense. Now they’re on the run. Smell the fear. Breathe it in deeply, then spit it back out in their faces. Bury them deep in their own bullshit. Bury them 12 ft. deep, because deep down, they’re not really bad people…

(I think I stole that last line from someone here… my compliments to the original author)

Increasing crime rates are used to justify increasing crime fighting, as well as enlarging the number of crime fighters. Crime is good for government. This latest move by Congress makes it pro-crime, and imprisoning-the-poor its ongoing obsession.

Here’s a good one to go with it. Speaker of the House John Boehner won’t give up wine and cigarettes to be be president – http://tinyurl.com/o5rkldu . Its time for our government to do more than give guidance advice. I thought law makers actually MADE LAWS. Its time for these hypocrites to start making some to get marijuana off of the schedules and out of the CSA. They can surely pass some banking laws instead of just handing out some big shot advice. They made this mess – they can get off there a** and start fixing it.

I want more from the Prohibs! I want them on rooftops (easier to push over) screaming their idiot incoherencies. C’mon Cully Stimson, go Dr Eric “Darth” Voth, scream on Patrick, more carpetbagging obfuscation Kev, let the people see all of you in all your *cough* splendor.

Gosh I’m constantly being haunted by synchronicity in this blog’s comments columns. Just this afternoon I was promoting and cheering making episodes of Stupid Patrick’s a daily occurrence. I really don’t think I’ve ever been so thrilled that any other prohibitionist existed. I think Mr. Kennedy is a major asset to cannabis law reform efforts. At least as long as he’s on the other side of the table. I’ve never had the occasion equal to telling a man from Hawaii that pot was much stronger today. Heck, I’m even contemplating making a donation to SAM. Nothing significant but I think I could scrape up $4.20 to help SAM stay afloat so that Forrest Gump Mr. Kennedy can continue to speak his mind without interruption. (that’s a joke old man)

———–

Hey, I really think we got the blood:guts ratio of our chum just perfect. The politicians smell the blood in the water and it appears to me that a feeding frenzy is imminent. This one is from the “Vexed by synchronicity. Again.” category:

[mandatory stupid joke about cannabis deleted], but House Majority Floor Leader Rida Cabanilla is looking to marijuana to solve some of Hawaii financial troubles.

Cabanilla said she hopes to legalize cultivation, manufacturing and exporting of marijuana and marijuana food products in Hawaii to pay off the state’s billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities as well as make infrastructure repairs and fund public education and human services programs.

“This state would turn into a manufacturing state. Can you imagine factories that would be making ‘Maui Wowie’ cookies and making marijuana macadamia nut candy for export? I think that would be wonderful,” said Cabanilla, who represents Ewa Villages, Ewa Beach, Ewa Gentry, Ocean Pointe and West Loch.
/snip/

Like I keep saying, they have surrendered to their Inner Crazy and are now expressing – and exposing – themselves…in the way a scrofulous disease does on the ol’ epidermis. What was always inside has finally ‘outed’ itself, in all it’s pustulent glory.

I keep thinking of what Nietzsche said:

but it is not the heart that inspireth them– but vengeance. And when they become subtle and cold, it is not spirit, but envy, that maketh them so.

Their jealousy leadeth them also into thinkers’ paths; and this is the sign of their jealousy–they always go too far: so that their fatigue hath at last
to go to sleep on the snow. In all their lamentations soundeth vengeance, in all their eulogies is maleficence; and being judge seemeth to them bliss.

But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!

They are people of bad race and lineage; out of their countenances peer the hangman and the sleuth-hound.

Distrust all those who talk much of their justice! Verily, in their souls not only honey is lacking.

And when they call themselves ‘the good and just,’ forget not, that for them to be Pharisees, nothing is lacking but–power!”

Scratch a prohibitionist and beneath it you will find peering back at you the baleful eye of the authoritarian. The sort ol’ Friedrich warned us about.

The state of Hawaii hasn’t even got it’s own dispensaries because these same politicos refuse to get it done and they want to go into medical marijuana businesses and still keep marijuana schedule 1 in the state,,,sick indeed

Kap’n, did you ever watch Andromeda? In the story there are an enhanced race of humans who base their life philosophy on Nietzsche and call themselves Nietzscheans. The best science fiction shows us the end result of some forms of thinking. Also shows the ugly face of authoritarians. Avidly reading science fiction in one’s youth, especially in the pre-teens, creates libertarians (though my parents told me, after they learned from me the basic libertarian philosophy, that I was born libertarian, I’m quite certain reading SF contributed a lot to what I already instinctively understood).

Yes, I saw some of the first episodes, but that was it. I didn’t want to make the time investment needed to follow the series fully (despite it being interesting) and never bought the rest of the DVDs, and eventually forgot about it.

I only use that quote to show something: just how timeless the struggle for freedom is. For what he was describing could be in any era.

People like what he was warning against always seem to gravitate to power largely because most people are live-and-let-live and are not interested in controlling their neighbors…not the way these troglodytes are.

But we’ve been on the short, sharp and sh*tty end of the stick held by these people for decades, and know their motivations intimately…as they’ve made no bones about what they’d like to do to us if there were no legal sanctions, a la Darryl Gate’s publicly expressed desire to summarily execute cannabis consumers, Judge Dredd-style.

I said it last year and I’ll say it again: They want people they don’t like to die. They really do. We know what’s behind the mask. Now the public is getting a good look, too.

Why is this a big deal? They’re going to offer “guidance” to prosecutors, which is code for a new Justice Dept “memo.” You know, the kind that DOESN’T provide protection from prosecution. A memo may be enough for some dispensary owners to take a chance, but such a memo will mean zero, zip, nada to the banks. Without an actual change in federal legislation (which this administration appears to be avoiding at all costs), no bank is going to change their policy based on non-binding “guidance.” Which will become immediately apparent, and lead to more drawn out discussions by the administration about how they can appear to do something without actually doing anything.

The DOJ didn’t prosecute the largest launderer of illegal drug money in history, despite ample evidence. So as long as they are immune to federal charges of laundering drug money, they should be the go-to bank for all cannabusinesses.

that’s one of those questions isn’t it? Why is it ok to launder cartel money but not work legitimately with that of emerging US businesses? Which leads to my primary question, one I’ve long been asking – why is capitalism good for everything but cannabis?

A partial answer, perhaps: because despite the Herculean efforts involved, the forces behind prohibition still cannot figure out how to monopolize cannabis.

Because, right now, the illicit drug market is the only true capitalist market on the planet. All the rest is just local expressions of global Corporate Statism. Which is to say, Planetary Monopolism. At the pinnacle of the PM food chain sit the banksters. The same folks meeting in Davos.

The very same ones who trashed the world economy.

They were kept afloat by the dirty money they laundered from the narcos. Both Barry McC and the UN admitted it.

As has been pointed out before, being an agrarian product, cannabis is very hard to monopolize. Oil, on the other hand, is (usually, unless a blowout occurs) tightly controlled from source to refinement to distribution…and thus easily monopolized. Which is why they fought us tooth-and-nail all these decades. Hemp cannot be monopolized, and a hemp-based economy which includes energy production and demands little re-tooling of present technology to accommodate is a direct threat to the powers that benefit from energy monopoliztion.

So now? They’re facing the same generational shift in other Developed countries around the world. To borrow a phrase from the Wiccans, “Cannabists are everywhere.” Literally, everywhere. A political force to be reckoned with in those developed and now developing nations. For whom the issue of cannabis (re)legalization is a handy, quick, effective litmus test to see if a pol they’re thinking of supporting is worthy of them…and their money.

The banksters have run their calculus, and realized the jig is up. Prohibition will end, either this election cycle or the next.

It will only take two, just two, with the definite losers being bludgeoned by the ‘youth vote’, which is vastly supportive of re-legalization, to convince all but the most concrete-brained pol that they had better begin to make positive noises in the direction of those they once disdained to the point of calling for our summary executions, and realize from now on that the worm has, indeed, turned.

The best the oligarchs can hope for is a slice of the action, but, of course, they only want it on their terms.

the forces behind prohibition still cannot figure out how to monopolize cannabis.

Nor will they ever IMHO. Right now the cannabis market ( in these states where legal) are thriving. Once its legal nation wide and one can grow their own…..well the bottom will drop out. Who the hell will pay high prices when you can walk down the street and get a bag from a friend or friend of a friend …or grow your own. We know its not that hard.

On top of what Kap said,,the homegrowers are cutting the profits on the black market marijuana,,all them new growers don’t need a bank to send their money out of the country and if they deposit in small enough packets it never raises an eyebrow.

Dan Riffle of the Marijuana Policy Project points out that Patrick Kennedy, chairman of the anti-pot group Project SAM, let this slip during his recent CNN debate with my colleague Nick Gillespie:

I agree with the president. Alcohol is more dangerous.

That is not what Kennedy said after Obama made that comparison in an interview with The New Yorker. Here is what Kennedy said then:

We take issue with the President’s comparisons between marijuana and alcohol, and we strongly encourage him—a president who has, on many occasions, championed rigorous science—to work closely with his senior drug policy advisors and scientists, who fully acknowledge the growing world body of science showing the harms of marijuana use to individuals and communities.

As I pointed out, Kennedy never actually said Obama’s statement was inaccurate (as opposed to inconvenient). But he strongly implied that the president needed to get his facts straight if he was going around saying that marijuana is safer than alcohol. Yet here is Kennedy, the day after Project SAM issued that press release, saying exactly the same thing. ‘snip”

Prohibitches use duck scat on their hair so common sense and facts slide off like water off a ducks ass,,,rumor has it after awhile everything they say begins to sound like a duck,,QUACK<QUACK_LIE_QUACK

About Med Mj in Illinois it prohibits firearms ownership and requires fingerprinting. A very grudging sounding proposal. I never read of fingerprinting requirements, even in decrim states! This thing needs repair!

CY,until you remove the prohibitchs from your state legislature they will continue to add more hoops for patients to jump through and more rights lost.
But it is as Kap said above,,if just two prohibition politicians start getting defeated by reform candidates the reefer madness will evaporate in the political arena and staunch prohibition legislators not running in 2016 will start remembering their college days and how marijuana wasn’t really all that bad..

I am glad to see that the head of the DEA Michele Leonhart is sticking up for her boss, Obama:

“She said she felt the administration didn’t understand the science enough to make those statements. She was particularly frustrated with the fact that, according to her, the White House participated in a softball game with a pro-legalization group. … But she said her lowest point in 33 years in the DEA was when she learned they’d flown a hemp flag over the Capitol on July 4. The sheriffs were all shocked.”

“She was honest,” said Sheriff Mike H. Leidholt of Hughes County, S.D. “She may get fired. But she was honest.”http://tinyurl.com/md98wox

This is a woman (DEA chief Michele M. Leonhart) who has spent 33 years of her life fighting drug abuse in the DEA, her entire life. To have the president of the United States publicly say marijuana was a bad habit like alcohol was appalling to everyone in that room

Normally, I stay away from calling out other drug users, but this whole “my vice is better than yours” attitude needs to be refuted.

“To have the president of the United States publicly say marijuana was a bad habit like alcohol was appalling to everyone in that room”.

Next, one would expect the naysayers to push alcohol’s cultural arguments for why it is superior to cannabis. It always boggled my mind how people will defend high functioning alcoholics and denigrate cannabis consumers. I’m also quite angry when the naysayers claim that they can drink without getting intoxicated. Most people who say this are trying to save face while lying through their teeth.

my earlier comment about lyin’ fart was supposed to be in reply here. despite fart’s concerns over the l/e officers who “gave their lives to keep drugs off the streets” her worst day was apparently when a hemp flag flew over the capital. what fantasy world is our little sleuth living in?

“”It is too bad all she did was challenge him,,she should have brought proof that marijuana was more dangerous than alcohol and showed America how their leader has lied to them,,of course the only real hurdle she has at doing that is that alcohol kills and marijuana doesn’t,,but that shouldn’t bother brain dead people.

She was just pandering to her audience, who lack critical thinking skills and are already programmed to believe every word she says. After all, from their viewpoint, she is on ‘our side’, in fact she is high in the hierarchy of ‘our side’ so she must be right. Therefore, no further proof is needed to convince them, because they arrive convinced and ready to be affirmed in that conviction.

I am marveling at how it’s unraveling. As the old saying from my childhood went , “Pull a string; get a snake.” The belfry’s been shaken, and now the public is seeing the (rabid) bats on the loose.

You know, it just struck me. The Reagan Administration was when much public funding for mental health programs were cut, and many institutions closed, their former residents dumped into the streets. I’d thought all the madhouses save a very few had been shuttered, ostensibly for budgetary reasons, but one was kept open, despite the claim for the need to save money, for all this time: the ONDCP.

Ideological anachronisms and out-right crackpots seem to gravitate towards support of prohibition…for various personal reasons as well, I suspect. And ONDCP seems to have a tendency to accrete them. Like the way planets are supposed to have formed, small clumps of insanity coming together to make bigger clumps of insanity, which in turn create more gravity and draw more clumps of insanity, ad nauseum…you get the picture.

At the core of it all is their Inner Crazy. Constantly fulminating, like the Earth’s core, always turgidly seeking the power to ‘make examples of’ those whose lifestyles they disapprove of.

The Inner Crazy is finally outing itself, in the form of the bureaucracy biting the hand of its’ boss….who’s in charge of the Executive Branch and can demand their resignations at will. Not a smart move by half. Sometimes, smart is crazy…but crazy alone is never smart. It’s just crazy…as they’re demonstrating so ably.

And if we were in any doubt that the Christian Right is the gravitational core of much of the wod, take a look at the Boston Herald link of Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson sitting in his office under a crucifix. Imagine being a junior L/E officer dealing with him on, say, a disciplinary matter in that office. Seems like a clear breach of separation of church and state to me, but that’s the base for the majority of elected officials in this country. “When fascism comes to america it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

“Kern County, Calif., Sheriff Donny Youngblood, president of the Major Counties Sheriffs’ Association, the group that sponsored Leonhart’s talk Tuesday at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., said Leonhart called out Obama for what Youngblood described as “irresponsible” comments that were a “big slap in the face” to cops who have lost their lives keeping drugs off the street.”

——

The blood of those cops and the many civilians who have also lost their lives is splattered all over Michele and anyone who holds beliefs even remotely similar to hers.

Poor Michele, she’s going to be increasingly disappointed as the years wear on. She’s relatively young and has many years to become increasingly bitter. Few deserve a more protracted downhill slide than Ms. Leonhart.

Enjoy it, Michele. You’ve earned all the bad karma that will haunt you for the rest of your life.

After applying Kaps wisdom on words I changed it to sound less challenging and confrontational,,thanks KAP

“”It is too bad all she did was challenge him,,she should have brought proof that marijuana was more dangerous than alcohol and showed America how their leader has lied to them,,of course the only real hurdle she has at doing that is that alcohol kills and marijuana doesn’t,,but prohibition enforcers never let facts get in the way of good propaganda.””

More wall cracks and crumblings. Other law enforcement is beginning to regard prohibition methods as systemically flawed, and they’re adapting prohibition economics to their law enforcement approaches, which in this example involves poaching:

The authors also show how trading bans can drive up the price of poached goods, which in turn encourages the involvement of organized criminals who operate like drug cartels.

“Much of the current narrative on responses to poaching and illegal trade in wildlife is centered on increasing enforcement efforts and anti-poaching measures. We argue that this approach risks making the same mistake as the ‘war on drugs’, because it doesn’t address the real drivers of poaching. For example, increasing demand in East Asia and growing relative poverty nationally and internationally,” said Daniel Challender from the University of Kent. “To conserve species’ we need to build capacity to do so within local communities and consider supply-based approaches and demand reduction programs based on further research.”

Logic can take you far in life when carefully and constructively applied. To continue using logic to try and decipher the drug war and conservative code is to become insane, in the sense of doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

We expect congress, the president and laws to be based on reality and science, but they’re not.

So here’s the conundrum, WHY, WHY, WHY would any nation hold onto this stupidity with such energetic enthusiasm?

I suggest that America’s elite believe that they have won the “ELITE LOTTERY.” That is, the elite in THE WORLD’S LONE SUPERPOWER get all kinds of extra benefits, e.g. the military-congressional-industrial-complex.

My Senator from California who I despise Diane Fartingstein is a perfect example of this type of corruption, but she’s hardly alone.

My point is, THE DRUG WAR, is a VALUABLE TOOL that gives the U.S. a much greater freedom to move around the globe to fuck things up.

NO OTHER NATION’s elites gets these kinds of perks to this extent.

A superpower does NOT appreciate having their tool chest messed with and that’s my thinking on why Schedule I status for cannabis is so treasured by the drug war types.

See, if they continue to jail and harass us forever, most of the public will never come to terms that a society that used cannabis and hemp to it’s fullest potential wouldn’t need Big Oil/Big Pharma/ and on and on.

Maybe the better question is why are Americans such a WARMMONGERING PEOPLE? We love us a WAR pretty much on anything.

Protecting the status quo is good for America the SUPERPOWER. The drug war is a tool that allows more perks for American elites. Put yourself in their place, if you were an asshole you’d treasure what the drug war does for your life and career.

It’s fun watching these born authoritarian types squirm and pee themselves. Just once, when the topic of cannabis smoking and I.Q. is brought up I’d like someone to ask how much the teaching of creationism lowers I.Q.?

They employ an awful lot of “Tools” – w/ that money IDk how ‘Valuable’ they really are – but IMNSHO they’re certainly not worth what they cost.
They’re mainly kept around to hassle “unwanted types” in their local vicinities, which is often open racism.

But, too many folks let this pass – as it’s “not their problem”… Sadly, IDK when we’ll see this change.

US PRAISES THAI DRUG WAR!
☛THE TRUE RESULT OF THAILAND’S “WAR ON DRUGS”
Close to 3000 PEOPLE HAVE DIED through police operating a “shoot to kill’ policy against suspected dealers The high death toll has provoked international concern A further 50,000 people have been arrested
☛DEPLORABLE HEALTH CONDITIONS / HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
☛Drug War Creates Mass Death of the Akha (Thailand)
From February of 2003, to 100 days later, June 2003, Thai police executed over 4,000 Thais, jailing 60,000, in a bid to meet targets set by the Thai Prime Minister to ‘complertely end all illegal drug use by whatever means necessary’.
☛A Lie College Students Might Want To Tell
Souder reported he made two trips last year — one overseas and one to Florida — that he did not pay for. The U.S.-Thailand Business Council paid the bill for a 16-day trip to Thailand last fall, and the Council for National Policy paid for Souder’s flight and overnight expenses to make a speech in Orlando in March 1996.

Ganjawar Puppets Cave… again
☛Threats From USA Force Mexico to Drop Decrim Plans
☛Are US Pot Laws the Root Cause of Mexican Drug Violence?
☛A New Battlefront Forms for the U.S. in C.A.
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill Wednesday, hours after U.S. officials warned the plan could encourage “drug tourism.” Fox sent the measure back to Congress for changes, but his office did not mention the U.S. criticism.

“Maybe the better question is why are Americans such a WARMMONGERING PEOPLE? We love us a WAR pretty much on anything.”

That is the looming question that never really gets answered.

Recently one of the state senators where I live (Texas) was asked about legalizing marijuana. He said that although it was surely coming in the future, he did not want to appear “soft” on crime (that typical regurgitation) by endorsing a change in the law. What struck me was that he did not realize that continuing marijuana prohibition (or any drug prohibition) solidified the fact that he had a major hard on for crime continuing ad nauseum. “Soft” on crime? Not even close. His position endorses crime.

The notion of legalizing a substance that would lead to neutralizing “crime” — sucking all the wind out of it — never entered this bird brain’s mind (apologies to birds). His one track mind allowed only one conclusion: FIGHT the marijuana. FIGHT the marijuanaers. FIGHT those who don’t join your FIGHT. Warmonger on into the sunset (that never really sets).

More on the DEA’s illegal activities. Why is anyone at all now listening to Michele Leonhart when she’s running a major criminal enterprise?
“the DEA at the highest level is nothing more than a smuggling and protection agency for cartels that work with major banks.”

“While the social costs are to be debated, it seems unlikely the DEA is concerned over the social cost of incarcerating millions of Americans for purchasing drugs the agency itself helped ship into the country.”

What i don’t understand is why Leonhart and Capra are not being directly questioned under oath on this… never mind what’s going on in Colorado with cannabis….that’s just being used as a distraction by the DEA.

JV, isn’t this what “scandals” are made of? Isn’t this the type of double dealing that stirs “outrage” (faked or not) among our esteemed congressmen and women? Isn’t there at least one quasi level headed congress person out there who is dying to ask,

“Ms. Leonhart, am I to understand that your agency is tasked with keeping drugs OUT of this country but now it’s been revealed that your agency is facilitating getting them IN? And if I may ask, how many SWAT raids will you conduct that ends up terrorizing citizens who have purchased the very drugs your agency has helped make available?”

All this – the fact that the DEA was cutting deals with Sinaloa, seems to be disappearing into a black hole. Like its all too much to look at. This is a corrupt federal agency, corrupted by its own mission.

When journalists discover Al Giordano and his crew’s work (www.narconews.com/)… watch that wall fall. Remember Al has been digging deep into the dark side for a long time. He’s the one that pointed to the bank of Mexico’s laundering cartel money way back when.

Now we can begin to pay for that failed war against Narco-Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I’m so proud of all my couchmates for keeping up this fight. NO doubt that Mr. Pete has had a strong influence by giving us resources to be further aware and thus using our own talents to turn the tides.

“What we have seen within the GOP in Indiana is a real paradigm shift away from the Reefer Madness type portrayal of marijuana and marijuana users towards one of competition and economics. It only makes sense for a state like Indiana to embrace such reforms. The fed has been subsidizing Indiana farmers for decades, growing corn that is processed into high fructose corn syrup and fed to us at every turn. This new legislation will allow a certain number of farmers to apply for permits to convert their corn farms into industrial hemp operations. Indiana is the perfect place for growing, processing and manufacturing hemp related products. By taking this bold move, Indiana could see a large boom in jobs as outside groups rush to get in on the ground floor of the hemp industry.”

IN–Multiple states are rushing to get in on the trend of legalizing marijuana and Indiana is taking the next step in the process by not only allowing adults to buy, possess and consume up to 2 ounces of marijuana, but also opening the gates for farmers to grow and manufacture hemp and hemp related products.

This was posted 3 days ago and I never saw it on my searches,,it has already been passed by the IN senate.

“”Your problem Cuckie baby s you believe your government and it’s political appointees,,wouldn’t it be nice if the government had to prove beyond “could be linked with” or “”may be caused by””?
Every study NIDA uses as proof that marijuana is a terrible drug is worded that way and twith your blind acceptance just removed all respect for you Chuck Norris,,go play with your exercise machine and allow the real people and patriots of this country to end a policy steeped in racism,greed and corruption..””

Oh….my….gawed….that has to the the most stupid piece of utter stupidity I’ve ever read in my life. Peanut butter and banana on toast? Somebody call Ms. Volkow pronto, we need to see a brain scan of Mr. Norris’ head! I think it very likely that there’s a black hole in there and if we don’t fix it quick we could all be sucked in and that would be the end of us!

Fear of spiders is arachnophobia
Fear of tight spaces is claustrophobia
Fear of Chuck Norris is called logic

Wow, that comments column was full of wackos, lunatics and Obamaphobes. I don’t think I’ve ever in my life read so many totally mentally deranged comments in my life. I got so scared that I had to run away!

Am I reading too much into things or are the crackpots and lunatics especially obsessed with Mr. Obama? Sure, every POTUS who has served since the era of modern communication has been in play has had their share of lunatic detractors but the Obamaphobes have taken things to a new level of utter madness! One of those dimwitted lunatics even called me an Obama jock strap sniffer!?! Now that is de-fucking-ranged in the extreme. It’s not like I’m a fan of Mr. O. IMO the best thing about Mr. Obama is that he isn’t George W. Bush. But then just about everyone including W’s daddy qualifies for that distinction. The people in that comments column actually make Mr. Norris appear thoughtful and sane!

Of course, nobody has those numbers, however it is EXTREMELY LIKELY that the numbers for illegal sales are down. By how much is difficult to know with certainty, however they are probably down by about a million dollars a day. What will be interesting to view is the dynamic of two competing markets vying for the consumer’s dollar. Competition is essential to capitalism so this is good.

Those numbers have nowhere to go but up. They represent only a fraction of the entire market. As time goes by, the trend will be less and less black market and more and more legal market. Cops will continue to harass black marketeers and legal prices will reduce a little as the market stabilizes. In the end, it will be almost entirely a legal market. As the black market declines the seed sellers, grow stores etc. will decline leading to increased difficulties and costs to grow your own. Home grows will be virtually a thing of the past within 20 years except for a few hobbyists. As the public becomes accustomed to legal pot, the laws will be softened to make its purchase, possession and consumption more flexible and things will get easier. Much the same happened following the end of alcohol prohibition. Initially, the black market continued but legal competition put them out of business. Rules were extremely strict at first, then gradually relaxed as societal thinking evolved. So it will be with pot. Income to the state will increase throughout this process, and when stability is reached the fiscal benefits to the state will be so enormous that to turn back will be impossible.